"So, uh, you're the boss, huh?" one of my "companions" asked me as we jumped off the wagon. "Any idea what we're dealing with out in this place?"
"Well," I began, scratching my beard, "I'm fairly certain there's an aquifer around here, but I think if we start digging in the beach we should be fine. Ish."
"Down with the mosquito man, then?"
"What?"
Overseer's Log, 1st Granite 151
Arrived at this little corner of the world with a bit more baggage than I was expecting. I suppose I may as well make the most of it, so I've ordered the miner, Houn I think she called herself, to dig out a decent-sized area for us to sleep in. One of the others is gathering wood, I'm going to go see what I can scrounge up in terms of surface plants around here.
Overseer's Log, 12th Granite 151
We've struck gold! Well, not gold. Coal. Lignite. Close enough. Also bauxite, which means gems, and iron, which means Dhoor or whatever his name was can get some proper armor.
Meanwhile on the foraging front, I've managed to scrounge up some pumpkins, blackberries, almendra nuts and some hide roots; hide roots aren't exactly good for eating, but if you mill them just right they make a nice brown dye. I think I'll get Dhoor to help me out with the farms so he's got something to do when he doesn't have anything to chase off and hack up.
When I asked why our hunter wasn't out, you know, hunting, I was informed that he would, in fact, be hunting if I'd thought to bring a crossbow or any bolts. Excuse me for thinking a professional hunter might have brought his own crossbow. Screw it, he can help with the farms too, there aren't any animals around here right now that I'd be willing to eat anyway.
Overseer's Log, 18th Slate 151
Our dorm is complete-ish. Furnished, at least. Even found some rubies, which absolutely bloody nobody is touching until they can at least tell one end of a chisel from the other. We have a room set out to keep us out of the rain as well, and Dhoor is hard at work making workable metal out of our coal and hematite. Going to tentatively extend into the dirt section to the north and pray we don't hit the aquifer before getting our deep crop farms set up.
1st Hematite 151
Blackberry wine is good, but it's no dark rum. Oh, what I wouldn't give for some sugar cane... In the meantime we've started making biscuits out of eggs and almendra flour, they're quite tasty. If not a little dry. But hey, that's what the booze is for. And now that the deep farms are running we're in no short supply of that.
27th Hematite 151
Did you know honey stalks make a soft yellow powder when milled that makes an excellent dye? I mean I still prefer dimple cups myself, can't go wrong with blue, but still.
Huh. As it turns out, if you dry out blackberries they can be powdered and used as dye as well. A nice deep purple, not bad.
6th Malachite 151
It would appear we've been sent assistants. How thoughtful. Seven in all, including one child. Three of the adults were assigned to kitchen duties, two gemcutters permitted to ply their craft here, and a fisherdwarf assigned to general labour, since it appears the few fish that appear around here are much too big to catch by conventional methods.
6th Galena 151
Now that Benev finally has his crossbow, he's clearly putting it to good use; he went out with one of the gem cutters today, who was apparently a hunter in his own right, and both returned with freshly-killed giant wrens. We eat well tonight, and our bone carver will be using the remains to craft trinkets for when the caravan arrives in a few months time.
19th Galena 151
Ohoho! Houn struck marble! I'm no metalsmith, but I do believe we have everything we need to make good, strong dwarven steel. Perhaps I could get used to this.
16th Limestone 151
PUPPIES! They've been put up for adoption because who doesn't love puppies? Silly dwarves, that's who.
26th Limestone 151
Oh my, she's certainly been practicing. Our broker/bone carver is becoming somewhat of an expert at carving bones; in fact, she just crafted possibly the finest ring I've seen in some time.
Dhoor certainly seemed to be interested in it, in any case. I wonder why?
6th Sandstone 151
I have the strangest feeling something weird is happening in the depths. I need to stop drinking that piss they make out of lichen, that stuff is barely palatable as is.
2nd Timber, 151
Yet more migrants arrived today, among them a young dwarf named "Toll Dwarf" Boltssizzle. Asked me to train her in the art of animal handling, if you can believe that. She says in the last fort she was in, a troll she was attempting to train got loose, and she had to "put the poor thing down".
Other than her, we got her husband, a former glazer, now general labourer, another bone carver even more skilled than our first, a metalcrafter who does a spot of hunting on the side, an amateur leatherworker and bone carver, a wax worker who's now a miner, and a pair of dwarves who've been assigned to work the farms and kitchens respectively.
10th Timber 151
In an attempt to find more gems to encrust our bone crafts with before the caravan arrives, I've designated a bauxite cluster on one of the lower levels to be dug out. Perhaps we'll find something interesting.
18th Timber 151
The caravan has arrived! And by Moldath, that bone carver that arrived not two weeks ago has already reached unheard of levels of skill, practically a legend in his own right, churning out masterpieces left and right.
1st Moonstone 151
After some negotiation, our broker was able to trade several barrels of biscuits (which, now that I think about it, were supposed to be our chief export anyway) and a stack of Crazyduck's iron bolts for some metals, turquoise, bags, a steel crossbow and a whole ton of cloth and leather. I should set up a dyer's workshop.
12th Moonstone 151
I need to lay off the lichen swill. I swear I just saw Benev drag in a giant fish riddled with bolts and dump it in the butcher's shop.
3rd Opal 151
One of the new migrants, the miner, seems to have gone a bit touched in the head, babbling about sudden inspiration and whatnot. Let's see what happens.
9th Opal 151
Well. That is certainly the most extravagant thing I've seen in all my years. The miner claims this is her life's work, and it's given her unforeseen prowess in the field of mining. After seeing how fast the went back to work, I certainly don't doubt it.
21st Obsidian 151
And just when I'm cursing the lack of interesting events, a kobold thief trips over its own tail and nearly stabs me in the leg. It was quickly taken down by Benev and Dhoor, but still, too much excitement for me. I don't think I'm cut out for this whole fortress thing.
1st Granite 152
I believe the time has come to retire. I'm stepping down as overseer and handing the reins to someone hopefully far more leader-y than I. I think I'll just handle the farming and animals from now on. Toll Dwarf did ask me to train her, after all...
Save here.My challenge for future overseers is to
have Zaerosz and Toll Dwarf reach Legendary Animal Trainer. Also, animals. All of them.The interesting ones, anyway, not the ones from the dwarven caravans. Set out cage traps. All the cage traps.
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Topic: Harvestcoast - A new, smelly surprise around every corner [Turn 9 complete!] (Read 40283 times)